April House
by Kirrithian
Summary: The Doctor and Phelk have a close miss and miss their destination, ending up on Earth in the spring of the year 2000. But there's something odd about a house. Challenge piece for The TARDIS forum.
1. Chapter 1

A.N: I Do Not Own Doctor Who

This is one of my enteries for the 'HAHA no so funny Doctor challenge' on The TARDIS forum.

The prompting joke for this fic was number 208: Do doctors make housecalls? Yes, but your house has to be really sick.

OC: Contains an OC. I've tried to make a bit of an introduction to get the gist of what he's about. If you want to find out more about him, I introduce him in Psych.

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April House

The room hummed and buzzed, vibrant colours rolling themselves around the curving edge, leaping through the large room and tucking itself into all the holes nooks and crannies available, a tidal wave of colour that seemed to have broken around the central pillar, depositing a jumble of nick-nack, odds and ends, a built up collection of bizarre parts that whizzed tumbled and clicked in a confusing haphazard way: A pile, Phelk reasoned, that had to have a button in it somewhere, but he just couldn't for the life of him find it.

"You found the Meterophysical transliteral dimension decomissioner yet?" The equally haphazard owner of the ship stuck his head around the pillar, his brown mop of hair attempting to migrate across his forehead and into his eyes, prevented from success only by the shuddering of the ship, which also set the red bowtie dancing under his chin.

"What?" Phelk asked, before being sent stumbling to one side as a particularly violent shudder from the Tardis almost flung him away from the console, but he kept holding on and pulled himself back towards it to spot the Doctor as he pulled the screen round to have a look at it.

"We took a bit of a sharp corner around the thirteenth century- must have knocked a connection loose or something because the Tardis is now trying to tell me what the weather in the space time vortex is, and not where we're going which is frankly a bit useless." The Doctor pushed the screen around towards Phelk, who batted it on back to the Doctor who fielded it neatly. "That button can turn this off, and if we can find it in time, it'll mean that we don't crash into the twentieth century." There was another loud crash and a violent jolt, they hung on until it subsided a bit and the Doctor looked around slightly nervously. "Again."

"What does it look like?" Phelk finally asked, exasperated at the Doctors ramblings.

"Erm…" The Doctor swung round to where Phelk was, dangling off the screen with one arm and peering intently at the panel. He pushed and pulled a few levers and dials, checking the screen. "No, that's no good." The Doctor passed the screen to Phelk. "Tell me if that changes."

Phelk stared at the whirling display of circles, muttering to himself. "Try defining change." Meanwhile the Doctor laid to and intense inspection of the panel, determined to find the button before they crashed into somewhen they shouldn't.

"Doctor," Phelk called and the Doctor looked round at him questioningly. "It's predicting rain." The Doctor shook his head.

"No good." He punched a few knobs and pulled a few more levers. "Try that." This time it was Phelks turn to shake his head before the Tardis gave another significant jolt, sending the Doctor sprawling over the console and causing Phelk to be half dragged around by the screen , clinging on with one arm before his grip slipped and he was deposited on the floor of the ship. On the other side of the console the Doctor rolled onto his back just in time to see the now loose screen whiz past above his nose. He caught it on it's next journey round and quickly pressed the little green button that was hiding round the back of it, the screen in response went dark for a moment, before resuming its normal, far more relaxed mode. Around them the Tardis settled a bit and Phelk clambered to his feet and moved cautiously to where the Doctor was now sat up on the console.

"It's back to normal now." He stated, shifting out of the way to let the Doctor jump off his perch and watched as he work around the console, pushing button and working various gadgets- the normal routine of flying the Tardis. "Did you find it?" Phelk asked, and the Doctor appeared in front of him, gesturing at the now fairly smooth flight of the Tardis, the glass column in the central pillar pumping up and down regularly like a heart, or breathing, the colours flooding the console room now a little less panicked.

"No." The Doctor concluded. "But I did find the activation switch for the screen, and as I'd managed to isolate the dislocated circuit I reset the system and it sorted itself out. Everything back to normal. Problem solved!"

"You just turned it off and on again didn't you?" Phelk stated bluntly, the Doctor almost protesting before busying himself with the controls, beginning to direct them towards their next location.

"It did give me an idea. The grand botanical amalgamation: Ten planet, and the biggest collection of plants, trees and fungi around, and what's more is that it'll be fairly quiet as there's never usually more than a couple million visitors each year and the head keeper is a good friend of a pal of mine- I'm sure she'd get you a post there if you wanted to stay. What do you think?" Phelk pondered the Doctors offer for a minute before replying.

"Worth a shot. Wouldn't say I'm the most green fingered person around but you might be right about the noise. Trees don't tend to have much in the way of telepathy." The Doctor was busily at work, sending the Tardis towards it's destination, and after a moment landing her.

"Kew, entrance planet of the gardens- they decided to name each planet after famous old Earth gardens: Kew, Eden, Babylon, Dixy…"

Phelk half nodded, already over by the door and on his way out. He disappeared outside and there was a moments silence.

"Oh." Phelks disappointed voice drifted back into the Tardis, swiftly followed by Phelk himself. "You've done it again. Earth; I've already told you it's too busy." The Doctor tapped frantically away at the keypad.

"Are you sure?" The Doctor asked, causing Phelk to stick his head out the door again, wrapping his hand to his ear.

"Err yep, I'd know that tone of incessant worry anywhere."

"Earth."

"Told you."

"In the year 200." The Doctor continued, with an air of intrigue. "A bit of a party year, lots of worry about a millennium bug and a number of projects which don't all go according to plan but there you go." The Doctor spotted Phelk disappearing back out the Tardis. "That wasn't meant literally!" He called after him, and following him out when he got no reply. "I know you don't like it here, and I appreciate you making the effort but you don't have to stay here, I can try and get us to the gardens again."

"Doctor, that house…" The Doctor spun round to look at it. It was a gleaming new house in the Georgian style with a near white and duck egg blue façade that spanned five windows across and three floors up, set in a cleared area surrounded by woods, a driveway now broken up by weeds leading through the woods to the front door, and a hint of lightness and grass indicated a sizable lawn around the other side. It was an impressive sight.

"It's a nice house." The Doctor complimented, peering through the thick trees trying to see how far the grounds stretched, and maybe work out where they were.

"I thought I saw it move." Phelk finished, almost hesitantly, but it caught the Doctors full attention and he buzzed over Phelk and then the house with the sonic screwdriver, holding it up with a flick.

"Odd." The doctor commented, looking between the house and his screwdriver.

"In what way?" Phelk asked.

"It just is?" The Doctor started shaking the sonic, trying to check it was working, buzzing at the area around where they stood before centring it back on the house.

"But how? Why?" Phelk asked, more insistently.

"I don't know!" The Doctor exclaimed. "I tried working it out with the sonic but it's just giving me 'odd'. Odd. The house is odd." The Doctor stood looking at it and repeated himself. "The House is odd." They looked at it trying to see it's oddness, before Phelk broke the silence, having decided he couldn't actually spot anything odd.

"Want to go have a look?"

"Yeah."

They wandered up towards the house, gravel crunching as they made their way up the driveway towards the bright white front door.

"10 acres." The Doctor stated.

"The price?" Phelk responded, drawing up beside hi at the door.

"Nah, old style measurements. It's the size of the grounds- it's a fairly big house, quite important in this area I'd think. Shall we see if anyone's in?" Without waiting to hear Phelks protests the Doctor sharply rapped on the door. The knocks could be heard echoing down the empty hallway within. "Of course the owners might just be asleep or out shopping and maybe just a very bit behind on the upkeep of the grounds." The Doctor challenged Phelk. "Could've just imagined seeing it move."

"I am not going mad. I saw it move. Anyhow your sonic said it was odd." Phelk replied curtly, hand clenching round the doorknob.

"Yes." The Doctor held the sonic up level with his eyes. "Looks like a house, feels like a house, smells like a house. Odd house." He buzzed the lock and it clicked, Phelk pushing the door open to reveal a bright interior.

"Wow, someone's been looking after this place well." Phelk complimented, gazing around the entrance hallway. The black and white checked diamond floor stretched out from the door, folding itself around the base of the polished wooden staircase that ran up one side of the room and along a balcony landing at the top, a shining chandelier hung in the center gleaming brightly.

"I'll have a look around upstairs, you can take the ground floor." The Doctor was already leaping towards the top of the stairs. "And remember, we're looking for anything odd." The Doctor disappeared into one of the rooms and Phelk wandered to the nearest door and went in. It was a large living room with an ornate fireplace, sofas and a couple of cabinets, all decorated with vases brimming with flowers. Pausing to sniff one of the roses in the nearest vase Phelk moved on into the next room, a library, then another reception room, a dining room and eventually came to the kitchen. Phelk was beginning to get bored. Absolutely nothing seemed to be even slightly out of the ordinary. Even the plumbing was working perfectly so he rinsed out a mug and poured himself a drink of water, which even tasted uninteresting. Maybe he had just imagined the house moving.

There was a crack as the mug in his hand broke, depositing a load of cold water over his feet. He cursed collecting the remains into a pile in the corner, discovering the small roundish stone that was responsible as he did. He turned and looked out the window behind him catching sight of a young face disappearing with a rustle into the bushes.

"Hey!" Phelk began to give chase, being brought to an abrupt halt by the door, or rather the solid brick wall where he could've sworn the door had been. He didi a double take, glancing around the room. Nothing else had changed, and the other two doors were exactly where they were before. He closed his eyes and leant against the wall. Maybe he had been overdoing it recently, and was just imagining things. He almost decided that was the problem when there was a clunk and the door swung open sending him backwards into the gravel with an oof. He gingerly sat up; feeling the back of his head, deciding no damage was caused before glaring at the door in front of him, swinging almost half mockingly open. But? Had it…? Phelk scrambled to his feet, stumbling away from the house before breaking into a run around towards the front where he'd heard a loud crash.

"Doctor!"

Meanwhile the Doctor was bored. There had been nothing particularly interesting that he could find. Sure there's been a pretty dolls house in one of the rooms- a nursery by the looks of it, but otherwise it was just bedrooms, bathrooms and a really stuffy cupboard. He tossed a pillow to one side in the bedroom and looked out over the lawn, catching sight of a hint of movement. He heard the sound of something breaking on the ground floor, and decided to abandon the search and see if Phelk was okay, sweeping past the king sized bed and a full length mirror on the way out.

The corridor fell silent of footsteps and slowly, cautiously the Doctor put his head back around the door, looking at the mirror intently. He moved in front of it, waved a hand close to it and stood back.

"Impossible." The doctor suddenly span around on the spot, turning to face the mirror again, glancing over his shoulder and then quickly patting himself up and down before drawing close to its face. "Well I'm definitely here." He chucked a small pot from a nearby table across the front of the mirror, watching its progress being reflected as it went. "And," he declared, "you're definitely a proper mirror." The Doctor carefully held a hand in front of the mirror. "So where's my reflection?" The mirror continued to stubbornly show the contents of the bedroom, ignoring the Doctor as he laid his hand on the mirrors surface. "Where's my reflection?" The mirror cracked, a web of lines running from each fingertip, the Doctor quickly drawing his hand away and bounding out of the room, half running, half jumping around, darting into the next bedroom, peering into the mirror on the dressing table. "Where's my reflection?" He danced over to the windows looking out over the front of the house, ducking and weaving, trying to spot his persistently absent reflection.

"Where's my reflection?" He made to bring the sonic out, but the floorboard beneath him cracked and splintered, knocking him off balance, before cracking again and sending him sliding and falling to the floor below.


	2. Chapter 2

I Do Not Own Doctor Who

Challenge piece for the Tardis forum.

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Chapter Two

The Doctor landed in one of the sofas, coughing and spluttering as splinters of timber and dust clouds of plaster settled around him. The clouds parted for a moment and he caught a glimpse of a painting of some ancestor or another, reminding him what had had been worrying about.

"Reflection." He heard Phelks' call from outside and scrambled to his feet, running out the door to find Phelk running the other way. Phelk stopped as the Doctor ran towards him.

"Doctor there's… ugh." Phelk huffed as the Doctor continued on past him, starting a peculiar bobbing motion up and down to look in the windows, talking as he went.

"Phelk it doesn't matter for the moment, I need to find my reflection, the house stole my reflection. Water, water! That'll have my reflection, Phelk have you seen any water, a lake, a pond?" The Doctor finally stopped and turned to face Phelk, spotting the damp patch on his trouser legs. "A puddle?"

"What?" Phelk asked incredulous, before picking a chunk of plaster off the Doctors shoulder and holding it up. "What happened to you?"

"Floorboards broke, I fell through. They were probably rotten or something." The Doctor replied hurriedly before indicating at some greenery on Phelks' jumper. "What about you?"

"Ah, uh the door stuck." Phelk offered the Doctor giving a quick nod of 'ah, okay'. Phelk looked at him. "'The house stole my reflection'?" He asked disbelievingly.

"Hey, you're the one who thought you saw it move!" The Doctor replied defensively.

They looked away from each other, staring out into the trees at either side of the house. Phelk gazed at the hint of blue that filtered through the trees from the Tardis before returning his gaze to the house. The Doctor watched a bush that was rustling as someone was trying to hide behind it. He looked at Phelk who was once more gazing at the house. Feeling he was being watched Phelk quickly looked at the Doctor who guiltily shifted his gaze back to the house, Phelk following suite.

"Odd house." Phelk stated.

"Yeah." The Doctor agreed, before looking back at the bush and continuing in an overly loud voice. "It would be good if we could get some local knowledge about it." The Doctor smiled at Phelk and after a short wait the figure appeared cautiously standing up behind the bush. "Hello!" The Doctor called enthusiastically "Could you help us out? How much do you know about this house?" The Doctor beckoned the lad over and after taking a moment to haul his bike out from the undergrowth he wheeled it over, leaning on it as he looked at Phelk and the Doctor, his matching grey trackkies and hoodie giving Phelk a slight smile. These Earth types wore some strange clothes.

"What are you doing here?" He asked, almost rudely.

"We could ask you the same question." Phelk countered. "Shouldn't you be at school?" Indeed he looked about fourteen, fifteen at the most.

"You're having a laugh!" The kid replied. "It's Sunday, course I ain't got no school. Nutter."

"Hey there's no call for that!" The Doctor interjected "We just tend to lose track of what day it is because of our job. Now what can you tell us about this house? Who lives here?" The kid looked at both of them in disbelief.

"You're both nutters ain't yah?" Phelk and the Doctor glanced at each other before letting the kid continue. "No-one lives here. Ain't been anyone living here for a while."

"Why's that?" Phelk asked.

"Cus it's haunted of course! Thought you two would know that what with your job an' all."

"Really?" Phelk asked again, the Doctor quietly slipping something out his pocket.

"Yeah, you're ghost hunters aint you? No other reason you'd be up here and I saw your box of equipment- that blue shed."

"Yep, that's right, you've caught us. We're ghost hunters." The Doctor declared flashing the psychic paper in the kids face. "I'm the Doctor and this is Phil, Ghost hunters extraordinaire… s."

"Aww that's so cool! Awesome gig mate!"

"Right." Phelk replied dryly, not even bothering to try and understand, turning to the Doctor instead. "Phil? PHIL?" He hissed.

"Phelk is a bit of an odd name even for these times. Things may be changing but it's another few years before people start naming their children odder things like kitchen devices." The Doctor explained before addressing the kid again. "So what's your name?"

"Bob." He answered and the doctors' face lit up.

"Bob! Great name Bob. Love a Bob- Never met a Bob I didn't like. Nice round name Bob Bobby bob. So," the Doctor clapped his hands together and rubbed them with excitement, "What can you tell me about these hauntings Robert?" Bob winced, but still answered.

"Well it's mostly just stuff flying around." Bob shrugged. "Loud bangs, strange noises in the night, half sighted images of people in the windows." The Doctor frowned, reminded yet again of his absent reflection.

"Is there a pond or fountain around here? Preferably with running water." The Doctor asked.

"Yeah, just down this way. What d'ya need it for?" Bob asked, making his way through the trees, closely followed by the Doctor and Phelk.

"Have you seen me?" The Doctor indicated his layer of plaster dust. "This isn't for dress up you know. I've not been running round pretending to be a ghost trying to lure all the other ghosts out."

"No, he's been busy falling through ceilings instead." Phelk commented, easily ducking a branch that swung back towards his face a moment later. "That was what, or rather who the crash was." At the front Bob nodded before pointing towards some worn down masonry in the middle of a tatty lawn.

"Fountain's there. By some miracle it's still going even now." Bob cocked his head thoughtfully. "Probably fed by some underground stream or sommat."

Phelk followed the Doctor over to the fountain, where sure enough the was still a trickle of water, dripping its way down the base of a long since broken statue into the bottom of the fountain where it lay in a mucky brown puddle. Slowly the Doctor looked over the edge, seeing his reflection in the water below. Phelk looked at the Doctor, who gave no outwards indication that he had seen his reflection; instead he made Phelk jump by bursting out and half diving to get at the water, scooping it in large handfuls over his face.

"Blimey Phil! You could've told me I looked this bad." The Doctor flicked some water towards Phelk, causing him to jump away. "Stay there." The Doctor quietly asked, and out of Bobs view he buzzed the water with his sonic screwdriver.

"Water's not haunted you know." Bob told him, walking around the side of the fountain. The Doctor quickly hid the sonic but Bob continued. "You don't have to hide your ghost detector from me, it's not like I'm gonna steal the design for myself. Got no interest in ghosts."

"In that case what are you doing up here?" Phelk asked. "Said yourself there's no reason to be."

"It's quiet innit?" Bob gestured at the ground. "Big place, no-one else comes up here cause they think it's all haunted but I found that as long as I don't go into the house it's fine. Got the whole place to myself. My little patch."

"So the haunting's up at the house, not in the grounds. Interesting." The Doctor stood looking at the house. "Most hauntings extend out into grounds as well so why is it just the house?"

"Ghost might've only known the house." The Doctor ignored Bob's suggestion.

"Bob can you do me a favour and go up to the house and look in every single window and tell me what you can see." Bob took a breath to ask a question but the Doctor stopped him. "Trust me, it'll help." Bob headed off to fill the Doctors request.

"I don't think his name is Bob." Phelk confided to the Doctor, watching Bobs retreating back.

"Of course he's not a Bob. I've met Bobs he's nothing like a Bob." The Doctor almost scolded, before calming. "This house, we need to examine this house, look at all the odd bits work out what is wrong with it. We are missing something, something important, another piece of the jigsaw…" The headed up to the house, Bob coming around the corner to meet them by the kitchen door. "What did you find?" The Doctor asked.

"Everything's normal with the house." Bob said, but the Doctor shook his head.

"No no no. Normal with THIS house is odd." The Doctor grabbed Bob by the shoulders and steered him in front of the kitchen window. "Take a look at the window."

"It's just a window."

"Look at the reflections." The Doctor said, and Phelk quietly moved behind them to see for himself, and Bob noticed him, and realised what was missing, jerking away from the Doctor in alarm.

"What are you?" He asked.

"That is the houses doing, I'm no vampire Bob, I had a reflection in the water, and I have a reflection normally. The house stole my reflection." The Doctor pleaded. "It's an odd house, we need to pinpoint what is odd and work out why."

"Doctor here's another 'odd' thing," Phelk said, holding up a stone. "Earlier when you realised you had no reflection I was in this kitchen having a drink and my mug broke because Bob was chucking stones at the house. But look at it…" Phelk indicated the door and window. "How did it get inside?" The Doctor looked between Phelk and the front of the kitchen, the windows, door and wall all perfectly intact. He picked up a stone and chucked it at the wall and it bounced back, narrowly missing his head.

"Seems okay." The Doctor turned to face Bob and Phelk.

"That's odd." Bob commented, looked at where the stone had fallen.

"The stone bounced off the wall like it should, so how is that odd?" Phelk exclaimed flinging his hands up in the air, the stone slipping between his fingers and flying towards the house. There was a pause when there was the complete absence of any sign of impact and the Doctor and Phelk turned around simultaneously to see the persistently intact house.

"That's what it does normally." Bob claimed with a smirk.

"Where'd it go?" Phelk asked, the Doctor pushing past him into the house. On the floor of the kitchen was the stone. The Doctor whipped out the sonic screwdriver and scanned the whole room, gradually working his way around.

"Might've come through the wall. This," he waved his hand around, "could be a projection." The Doctor stated, before continuing to fiddle with the sonic.

"Yeah, but that mug- it had water in it." Phelk argued.

"You could have imagined you were drinking."

"It landed on me- it was cold, and wet!" Phelk exclaimed, annoyed, before rapidly calming down as another thought struck him. "You were upstairs."

"I fell through the floor and yet somehow didn't get hurt. Could have been an illusion." The Doctor flicked the sonic off. "It would fit," he pondered "but it just feels a bit too real, a bit too solid." The Doctor looked up at Bob and Phelk. "We need to find whatever is producing the projection if it is." He buzzed the ceiling with the sonic as the other two watched.

"It ain't going to be up there if it is a projection." Bob commented.

"No it probably isn't. I was more wondering why the ceiling has become more of a pebble dashed affair than before." They all looked up at the ceiling which was now drooping with pebble dashing, the layer of white paint shifting to cover it. The heavy centre bulged downwards and a singular pebble emerged through the paint, dropping to the floor with a plink!

Plink. Another stone fell, and another and then another handful.

"Ow!" Phelk exclaimed at one hit the top of his head and more pebbles fell, raining down on the three of them as they dived to the side of the kitchen to avoid the worst of the downpour.

"Everybody OUT!" The Doctor shouted as downpour became a torrent, spreading over the floor, making the way dangerously uneven as the Doctor tried to cover Bob as they battled their way to the door. Stuck across the other side of the room Phelk flung his arms over his head and made a dash for the door, swiftly getting knocked off his feet into the increasing pile of stones, and began to get buried under the mass of pebbles falling into the room.

"Doctor!"

Outside the Doctor span round to see Phelk still stuck inside. He made to go back in, but the door swung shut in front of him.

"No!" He exclaimed, giving the door a tug, then buzzing it with the sonic which failed to unlock it. "Open it up! Phelk!" The Doctor pounded on the door, letting out and Ow! As his hand met solid wall. The door had disappeared and beyond it the clink of pebbles settling on one another continued at a calmer rate. The Doctor pressed his ear against the wall, listening carefully for the sound of any other movement, but there was nothing.

"Phelk." The Doctor closed his eyes a moment, frowning before turning to Bob." This is why you don't throw stones, particularly not at houses."

"Hey, I got bored and anyway, this ain't even a proper house is it?"

"Probably not, but that doesn't make it okay. You saw what happened." They stood listening to the silence for a few minutes before the Doctor suddenly crouched down and picked up a small handful of stones, carefully dropping them one by one. "Thought so." He stated when the last one fell and turned around and pulled open the kitchen door. The kitchen was back to its normal self, empty of pebbles and Phelk. "Phelk ?" The Doctor called into the house, but there was no response and he pulled out again, carefully closing the door behind him. "Phelk's gone." He told Bob.

"Probably found another exit." But the Doctor shook his head.

"There weren't any. You saw the kitchen door. No something's taken him, the same something that's been causing the effects of the 'haunting', the pebbles, all of it."

"What sort of something?"

"Alien."

"Ha, right." Bob scoffed.

"Something that doesn't want us in there- the pebbles were used in defence, every time the house has been acting odd is when we are inside- every time it didn't like it, tried to get us to leave."

"Sick house."

"That's not a bad description. Every time we went in it reacted to us like antibodies, trying to get us out, but surely that would react far sooner- of course!" The Doctor smacked himself in the head. "The sonic! Whatever it was didn't like me using the sonic, it's reacted every time. Oooh, that's not good, that's not very useful. I need to find whatever's causing the house to act like this and I need to find Phelk."

"Phil." Bob corrected, but the Doctor ignored him.

"Finding Phelk is the priority though; anyway he's probably close or even at the cause of this whole thing. Right, Bob I need you to get a couple of things from my shed."


	3. Chapter 3

I Do Not Own Doctor Who

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Chapter Three:

The first thing Phelk noticed was how he ached all over. Hundreds of bruises from where the stones fell on him and where he had fallen on the stones each shouted themselves up, but after gingerly moving and testing his limbs he was glad to find nothing was broken, and decided to have a look around. To his surprise he was in a brightly lit room, thin blue curtains covered three tall windows covering two sides of the room, which itself was filled with numerous children toys, games and teddy bears. A nursery. He sat up, drawing level with an ornately carve rocking horse and for a moment they eyeballed each other before Phelk looked around again.

"Right." He said to no-one in particular, slightly perturbed at how he got upstairs he stood up and headed to the door where after an uncomfortable moment's pause with his hand reached out for a non-existent door handle he realised wasn't and subsequently confirmed there was in fact no door out the room at all. He headed over to the nearest window, reaching up to grab a handful of the brightly lit curtain before drawing it to one side and being confront with even more wall. He did a double take and slowly looked along his arm, making his way up to his hand which he knew still had a handful of the curtain which he had opened. The curtains were still there , and so was the window, sitting as happily covered as before but just to the left of where Phelk was stood. He backed away a few steps before darting forward and pulling the curtains back again and again, but each time the windows were always unseen behind the curtains, which couldn't be opened, however much he tried. After a few tries, Phelk gave up, retreating back into the centre of the room.

"Doctor!"

Beneath him the Doctor looked up in delight as first he heard Phelk and then Bob appeared, carring an armful of wires attached to a strange device which the Doctor grabbed, separating it out, wedging one end into his ear, attaching another part to the wall and talking into the other.

"Phelk?" Oh," The Doctor flicked a switch after nothing happened and tried again. "Phelk?" His voice leapt around the house, causing Bob to jump.

"Doctor!" Phelk cried in delight. "How are you doing that?"

"Just a thingy-ma-jig and you don't need to shout, I can hear you perfectly." The Doctor gave Bob a smile. "Anyway, where are you?"

"I'm in the nursery."

"Oooh nice little crèche, beautiful dolls house, all just tucked into a corner upstairs. Erm, how did you get up there?"

"I don't know, I can't remember. I blacked out in the kitchen then woke up here. Oh before you ask I can't seem to get out. There's no door and the windows, um… aren't."

"Ah that's okay, just leave it to me. In the meantime, try to stay out of trouble." The Doctor pulled the tangle of wires off and gave it to Bob. "Right I want you to take that back to the Tardis and then stay there."

"But…" Bob protested.

"Now!" Bob sulked off the Doctor watching him go and as soon as he was out the house the Doctor whipped out the sonic, adjusting the settings. "When I used the sonic you tried to get rid of us. I guess the energetic of its frequencies messes with your component structures. One big burst of energy might persuade you to get rid of him!" The Doctor pointed the sonic towards the nursery and set it going, producing a loud, teeth rattling buzz.

Up in the nursery Phelk was admiring the Dolls house- it was almost an exact replica of the house they were currently in, the models of the individual pieces of furniture were fantastically detailed. He could almost swear that the miniature grand piano was playing just like the real thing. He picked it up, looking for a makers mark, freezing as the room around him began to shake.

And grow.

The Doctor held on to the sonic for as long as he could, the house shaking around him.

"Let. Him. Go!" He exclaimed before the sonic died, its energy source temporarily depleted. He tucked it back in his pocket, looking around. Nothing had changed, so he wagged a finger at a nearby wall. "You better have let him go." He tweaked his jacket and strode into the next room, spotting a surprised looking Bob over the other side of the room.

"Hey! I thought I told you to go back to the Tardis?" Bob looked up at the Doctor and started slowly making his way over towards him. "You were outside! I saw you leave! How did you get back in without me noticing?"

"I was outside and I didn't come back in." Bob protested. "The house came to me!"

Upstairs Phelk was frozen to the spot as the model in his hand grew, gaining in size past the point which Phelk knew he should be unable to hold it and it was only Phelks frozen state and the models apparent lack of weight that kept him where he was. Around him the room stopped moving, giving him a moments warning to drop to the floor, the piano shortly following, it's legs taking enough of the weight to give Phelk enough time to roll out of the way before one of the legs broke, sending the piano lurching to one side before it collapsed completely. Catching his breath back after that narrow escape Phelk looked around. He was once more in the hallway of the house, a distinct improvement on his previous position, particularly as the front door was just there. He strode straight over to it and pushed it open, his mouth plummeting open as he took in the oversized scene in front of him.

"The house overtook you?" The Doctor queried. "That doesn't make sense. If it had moved I would have noticed and it can't have grown because it would be huge and it's just the same size it always was."

"If you don't believe me then take a look out the window." Bob almost dragged the Doctor to the window, but he walked into something around knee height and fell over, a hand flying to his head even as his brain said 'shin-ow!' He sat up and saw what he had tripped over.

"Ah." At his feet was a small police box. He scrambled to his feet, moving over to the window. "If the Tardis is that size then that would mean…"He tailed off as he looked out at the countryside in miniature. "So the house did grow. Interesting. Maybe I was wrong earlier. Bob, did anyone ever live at this house?"

"A while back, but yeah, why?"

"What happened to them?

"They disappeared."

"Oh good." The Doctor replied unenthusiastically. "We need to get inside my Tardis." He crouched down, studying the miniature Tardis.

"How do we do that?" Bob asked. "Even I couldn't squeeze through there."

"Bob, think about it. I gave the house a burst of energy which caused it to grow, but there wasn't nearly enough energy for us or the Tardis to grow as well." The Doctor explained. "We didn't grow."

"But we're huge!" Bob exclaimed gesturing at himself then outside. "Look!"

"No, we're no. This, for a change, is an illusion. Watch." The Doctor shut his eyes and patted the air in front of him, grabbing hold of something, taking a step forward and disappearing. "I'm still here." Bob jumped as the Doctors voice seemed to come out of nowhere and he looked down at the Tardis to see a small Doctor waving at him. "Oh wow, it's a pretty neat trick they're playing there. Um, you do realise you're just looking at a random patch of floor don't you?"

"Doctor I don't get it. How do I get in there?" Bob asked.

"What you're seeing is just a different perspective, fitting you in with the larger environment such that you don't notice the change- that's the illusion. But you didn't grow. Just step forward and you'll be in the Tardis."

"But I'm so big!"

"No, you just think you are. Don't worry, that'll go once you're in here."

"Straight in front of me?" Bob looked up, just seeing thin air.

"Yeah, close your eyes if that'll help. The door's just here, it's open, just follow my voice." Bob took a few unsteady steps forward, then his foot snagged on something and his eyes flashed open as he fell with a clang at the Doctors feet.

"Mind the step." The Doctor joked as he helped Bob back onto his feet. "Take a look out there. Told you it was only the house that grew. You don't have to worry, everything's back to its normal size. Tthe illusion's gone now."

"Really? It's not that much better in here."

The Doctor busied himself at the controls, talking as he worked.

"You know I wasn't sure what we were dealing with before, the pebbles made me think of a spaceship trying to protect itself whilst staying camouflaged with the local surroundings, but that last trick was a bit too illogically complex for any spaceship and it made me think. There are some incredibly intelligent organic bio-matrixes out there and if it was a spaceship I'd have found the owner by now. So it's not someone controlling the house: it is the house. Now because it's grow, I can get a live tissue sample, which the Tardis has been analysing and…" The Doctor studied the results that flashed up on screen a small smile of delight creeping onto his face. "Oh! Well, you said it best yourself Bob. Sick house." The smile slowly faded. "The last residents…" The Doctor pondered.

"Disappeared." Bob finished and the Doctor hurried to a nearby box, rummaging through it.

"We need to get Phelk out." He lifted up a disintegrator gun, checking it's power level. "Give me five minutes then make a distraction and try and keep to the Tardis." With that he disappeared out the doors, leaving Bob stood there, making a check of his watch. Five minutes. He started looking around. How to distract a house…

Phelk stared in amazement at the oversize nursery that stretched out before him, before looking up and the Dolls house, now seemingly the size of a normal house, judging from what happened with the piano that it had grown. Unfortunatly the table the Dolls house was sat on had also grown, and now stretched to a height that would most likely injure him if it tried to get down. He was still stuck so he headed back into the Do… house. It now looked exactly like the original, having pick up even more of the details when it had grown. Phelk almost considered going upstairs to see if this new house had a nursery too, but opted to stick near the door, in case an opportunity to escape arose. He poked one of the walls, curious as to whether it was still made of wood, but it felt like brick. He wandered his way along, testing various parts of the wall until one part yielded, stretching and shifting under his touch then snapping back into place when he let it go.

"Interesting." He started to experiment, seeing how much the wall could stretch, how big this area of bendy, elastic wall was. It was almost fun. He put more and more of his weight on it, feeling it almost yielding underneath his fingers and slowly pushed it further and further.

The Doctor finally scrambled onto the oversized landing, and paced along it, drawing level with the part of the wall of the nursery, checked his watch and started setting up the disintegrator gun.

"So, you want Phelk, but not me because you don't know what I am, and not Bob because of his age and you reacted to the sonic because it was damaging you- sorry about that. But I really need my friend back, then we can talk about you being on a level three planet because you really shouldn't be. Now if Bob's doing his job right, then this shouldn't hurt a bit." The Doctor fired the disintegrator gun at a section of wall, forming a door shaped hole into the nursery, just big enough for the Doctor.

"Phelk?"

The whole house shifted and convulsed, the large wooden floorboards shrieking in protest. The doorway began to close and the Doctor leapt through before it did, diving behind a table leg as large teddy bears and toys tumbled from an oversized cupboard.

Phelk almost had his complete weight resting on the elastic section of wall when he heard the Doctor. He opened his mouth to reply, but the wall bounced back around him, enveloping him with the strange clammy material, holding him tight as he tried to get out, the house around him shaking.


	4. Chapter 4

I Do Not Own Doctor Who

* * *

Chapter Four

The Doctor was halfway up to the table, scrambling up the pile of fallen teddies that had accumulated to one side. He managed to haul himself up to the Dolls house and carefully made his way around the edge to the front door and pulled it open. The hallway was empty.

"Phelk?" There was no reply, so the Doctor ventured inside as the two houses gave another shudder, causing him to look around in concern. He moved onwards, drawn to a damp patch of wall where a single handprint sat.

"Phelk! Phelk!" The Doctor shouted again, but there was still no reply. He'd gone. Again. The Doctor almost turned to go check upstairs when the sharp smell of smoke drifted past. The smell got stronger and the houses started to shudder and after a moment's pause the Doctor realised they were shrinking at an increasing rate.

He legged it to the door, tumbling out and falling off the table. He quickly met the floor, scrambling to his feet and using the disintegrator gun to make a doorway out, ducking through it as the house continued to shrink. Smoke congregated around the continuously approaching ceiling, making his eyes water as he ran towards the staircase, hurtling down the stairs three at a time, shielding his face from the heat emanating from the rooms until he hit the ground floor and sped out the door just as behind him the stairs caught alight.

Not pausing in his stride he headed straight across the burnt ground to the Tardis, diving in and slamming the door behind him to encounter a surprised Bob. There was a moments silence as the Doctor caught his breath before turning to confront Bob.

"That was your distraction? Setting it on fire?"

"I didn't know it would go up like that!" Bob claimed, startled by the Doctors anger.

"You've probably destroyed it- that may have been the only one of its kind and you've burnt it down." The Doctor turned away from Bob to the console, setting the screen to watch the fire play out in silence.

"Where's your friend?" Bob asked quietly, keeping his distance from the Doctor.

"I couldn't find him." The Doctor moved around to the opposite side of the console and started rummaging around in various boxes, slowly piecing together a small device. On the screen the whole house was on fire now, burning rapidly and still shrinking. The whole thing narrowed and seemed to pour into the earth, flames and all, leaving only a black footprint to show where the large house had sat. There was nothing else there.

"It's gone…" Bob stated in amazement.

"It's very efficient- it used all the energy to stick something underground. Bring these." The Doctor walked past Bob giving him a couple of spades to carry before continuing on outside.

"You can't go outside, it'll still be hot!" Bob exclaimed. The Doctor ignored him already outside, and Bob, seeing that he was okay through the screens, followed him. The air was warm outside, but the ground was surprisingly cool. The Doctor was already stood where the centre of the house had lain, the device in his hand pointing straight down and beeping loudly.

"There's a hollow chamber down there registering life signs. So we better get digging." The Doctor relieved Bob of a spade and set to. They worked in silence for a while before Bob spoke up.

"I'm surprised we don't have the fire brigade on us."

"Nah, the smoke was contained by the house." The Doctor paused as his spade struck something hard, and he scraped away the soil to reveal a strong wood like barrier. The Doctor hacked at it with t he spade but it didn't yield, so they set about clearing around it. They uncovered a small pod about two by four metres across and the Doctors device confirmed it was the source of the energy signal, but try as they might they couldn't seem to break or even damage the shell. The Doctor had a few final goes at it before he chucked the spade away and crouched on it, peering in.

"This is ridiculous there's got to be a way in." He complained.

"Why?" Bob asked. "If it's just protecting itself then there probably won't be. It'll be trying to keep us out."

"Bob, it's an intelligent living thing, an alien and it's just been attacked by the natives and yes, you did nearly destroy it, so now it intelligently wants to leave and it's seen me and my spaceship, so knowing we're nearby it condensed itself into this cargo pod of sorts, something that' safe enough from the locals but for someone with the technology…" The Doctor pondered.

"I still don't see how you're so sure that the house wants you to take it away."

"It let me go. You saw how fast it burnt up- if it had let the fire run its course I wouldn't have been able to get out. As it was it struggled to hold the staircase for me, but it did anyway. But now we need to work out how it thought we'd get into this pod, this hollow , this room."

"So in a nutshell, we need a door?" Bob asked.

"Hmm." The Doctor confirmed, focused on the pod and didn't notice Bob running off to the Tardis until he returned with the disintegrator gun.

"You could use this!" Bob exclaimed. "You said it was a door maker."

"Oh Bob you're brilliant, that's perfect- exactly what the house would have thought we would've used to start with." The Doctor primed the gun as he talked, aiming it at the exposed shell. It glowed for a moment, and a large square hole appeared. Inside the light filtered through the shell, casting into dim relief its contents. Bob gaped at the Georgian Dolls house that was prominent in the centre of the pod.

"Wha..? Is that the house?" He asked.

"Sort of. But it is our cargo." He stated before getting distracted by the figure lying still on the floor behind it. "Phelk." They made their way round to him, Bob getting there first. The Doctor pulled out his sonic, trying to get it to scan, but it just gave a feeble purr and died. "Dead battery." The Doctor stated, annoyed.

"Doctor," Bob said calmly and levelly from where he was knelt by Phelks side. "He's not breathing."

The Doctor stood motionless for a moment. He knew when he saw him that Phelk was too still to even just be unconscious. If only they'd been quicker, although maybe that wouldn't have made any difference. It had been a bit too much to hope that he'd been right about the house. Phelk had gone. He shut his eyes for a moment before turning back towards the Dolls house, lifting up one end, testing the weight .

"Can you help me get this to the Tardis?" Bob quickly rushed to comply and together they carried it into the Tardis, carefully placing it on the floor of the control room.

"I'm sorry about your friend." Bob said softly.

"Don't be." The Doctor moved around the console in silence, sticking the sonic in a slot and pushing a few buttons, then gradually tidying up various pieces of equipment, before getting distracted by a constant beeping emanating from his pocket. It was the device he'd cobbled together earlier, still flashing. The Doctor frowned at it, pointing it at Bob, the Dolls house and then at the door. It continued beeping and the Doctor followed it outside where he stopped and scanned around, and discovered that the life signs were still coming from the pod. He started walking over, his stride becoming longer and quicker, breaking into a run across the burnt ground to get to the hole where the shell lay.

"Phelk!" The Doctor exclaimed, sliding to a halt at the edge of the shell, frowning as he saw that Phelk was just as active as he was when they'd left him, unmoving. He made a sweep with his detector that confirmed it was Phelk setting it off before chucking it away and heading to Phelks side. Behind him Bob caught up in time to field the energy detector, before standing and watching the Doctor at work.

He checked Phelks pulse and feeling that it was beating steadily, checked his breathing- he still wasn't. The Doctor frowned in puzzlement for a moment before moving to try CPR almost immediately stopping as he felt Phelks chest was solid and unyielding under his hands. He frowned again, and had a look at Phelks chest, noticing a green tinge to his skin.

"Of course." The Doctor stated, as if it was obvious, giving a small smile.

"What is it?" Bob asked.

"He's not dead." The Doctor declared.

"But he's not breathing."

"He's not breathing, but he's not dead either." The Doctor explained. " The house is very intelligent. Last time it must have become ill to consume its tenants, but doing that only made it more ill- it needs people living in it to survive. So it must have taken time to work out how to keep you humans alive."

"But how?"

"This." The Doctor indicated the green tinge. "It's an organic compound produced by the house and it's providing enough oxygen and other gases to keep Phelk alive whilst also removing the unwanted waste gases. It's taken over breathing for him. The House must have known he wouldn't have survived just off the air enclosed in the pod so did this to ensure that he did. Amazing."

"What now?" Bob wondered and the Doctor sighed.

"I'm not sure. Maybe the compound decomposes after a while- maybe on contact with air. But I can encourage to do so with the sonic, but that's charging so it'll be a while before I can try it." The Doctor looked at Bob. "It's getting late; you should probably head home, and thank you." Bob sort of half nodded and after a slight hesitation, left. The Doctor settled down beside Phelk and waited. Time passed and the light fell, the air cooling under the clear sky and the Doctor watched the stars appear one by one, thinking of their planets and places he'd been. It had been a while before he was interrupted: the sound of bicycle brakes followed by a call of "Doctor?" then Bob reappeared, and shined a torch into the pod, causing the Doctor to wince away as it flashed brightly in his eyes.

"Sorry!" Bob exclaimed and pointed the torch away.

"What are you doing back up here?" The Doctor asked, curious.

"Told me parents I was going stargazing. Brought you these." He held out a couple of blankets and a thermos. The Doctor accepted the blankets, covering Phelk with them, but declined the thermos.

"I don't need it," He explained, "but thank you anyway." Bob settled down beside the Doctor.

"How long have you got to wait?" He asked, and the Doctor checked his watch.

"About an hour left now. The sonic should be ready by then." They sat in silence and the dark as Bob turned his torch off. After a minute Bob spoke up.

"That's a bright star there." He commented looking at a particularly bright dot sat just above the tree line.

"It's not, that's Jupiter." The Doctor corrected.

"Oh right. You ever been there?" Bob asked and the Doctor smiled.

"Not the planet itself, but I have been to Europa- one of its moons. There was a three headed ice mogul who was convinced he had bought and therefore owned the Earth and was planning on sending it crashing into the sun."

"What happened?" Bob asked looking around nervously.

"I won it off him in a game of cards."

"No way!" Bob laughed.

"I did too! Now see that star up there? That's Astirus and around it there are twenty planets all similar sizes that fly round in very close orbits to one another. But it's perfectly balanced so that they never collide. Now three of those planets are inhabited ,and you can take a holiday there and wake up with another planet hanging directly above your head, and, if you timed it just right, you could get a shuttle across to that planet in next to no time- the ship would just head straight up!"

"Wow!" Bob exclaimed and the Doctor went on, describing various adventures he'd had, bob listening intently as he pointed out which way they'd occurred, time passing them by, finally interrupted by a quiet double beep which caused the Doctor to fall silent.

"What is it?" Bob asked.

"Sonics' finished charging." The Doctor explained, looking back towards the Tardis.

"I'll get it." Bob jumped up and headed of f towards the Tardis before the Doctor could even protest. He returned quickly, passing the sonic to the Doctor.

"Help me get him on his side." He requested and together they rolled him over, and the Doctor positioned himself so he could press the sonic against Phelks' back, and set it buzzing. After about a minute the Doctor frowned as nothing had seemed to have happened before realising his mistake and giving Phelk a large slap on the back.

Phelk coughed, spluttering out a dark green liquid, taking a deep breath and coughing again and again.

"That's it, get it all up." The Doctor reassured Phelk, before adding as an afterthought, "but don't forget to breathe." He kept the sonic going to help break up the compound and soon Phelk was coughing less and less. He recovered a bit, and managed to sit up, leaning against the edge of the shell, taking in deep breaths.

"Remember to remind me never to breathe wall again." He joked and the other two smiled.

"Welcome back." The Doctor said warmly, and Phelk took in his surroundings.

"Woah, what happened here?"

"The house burnt down. It stuck you down here for safekeeping until we could find you." The Doctor explained.

"It's dark." Phelk stated.

"I had to wait for the sonic to recharge before I could revive you."

"Oh, okay."

"What happened to you?" The Doctor asked, then had a second thought. "From your point of view of course."

" I woke up in the nursery after that problem in the kitchen, then I was looking at the Dolls house when everything grew! The houses grew!" Phelk exclaimed.

"We know." The Doctor confirmed. "But we had a rather odd perspective on it."

"Oh, well I got stuck in the Dolls house from that- I couldn't get down from the table. But I found a strange patch of wall- it looked damp but it stretched like a trampoline, a sort of rubbery elastic. I was kind of testing that when the whole house shook and it sort of boucing back, but around me holding me tight- I couldn't get out. Then I was here." Phelk thought for a moment. "It was burnt down?" There was a nod from the Doctor. "Shame about that. We still don't know where it came from." The Doctor jumped up, a sudden thought occurring to him.

"Phelk are you okay to get to the Tardis?"

"I'm fine." Phelk confirmed, getting to his feet.

"Well then Bob, we've got to get off: one more job to do." The Doctor started to head towards the Tardis, and Bob ran up beside him.

"What about this?" Bob gestured around at the remains of the pod and the burnt patch on the ground. "There was a house here! People tend to notice if a house disappears."

"Bob, you'll be fine." The Doctor paused by the door of the Tardis, Phelk heading straight in. "If you're really worried, just check the date." The Doctor disappeared inside and the blue door shut, leaving Bob stood there alone. He checked the date on his watch and laughed. April. The Doctor was right, it did make things easier. He jumped as the sound of engines started up from the box in front of him, a pulsing roar matching the light flashing on its top as it started to fade out of view, before disappearing with a flash of lightning and a strong breeze that quickly died away, leaving Bob stood there in amazement. He checked the date again.

"Doctor?" He stepped into the square where the Tardis had stood. The Doctor was gone.

In the Tardis the Doctor was working around the console, moving Phelk out of the way to get to the various levers he needed, only stopping when Phelk grabbed hold of him.

"Doctor, listen to me!" Phelk exclaimed and the Doctor started.

"Hmm?"

"Where are we going? And _what _the hell is that doing in here?" He pointed at the Dolls house.

"Kew."The Doctor snuck under Phelks arm to get to the console. "I'm having another go at getting us there. As for the dolls house, that's all that remains of the house, so I'm taking care of it."

"The house." Phelk repeated, unsure if he'd heard him correctly.

"Yes. It's a very intelligent bio-organic matrix and as such it needs somewhere to else to live." The Doctor explained and Phelk frowned, mouthing over what he'd just heard his face freezing in surprised realisation before breaking into a smile, a grin, then out laughing getting louder and louder until he was bent over double in hysterics, causing the Doctor to look at him in concern.

"Bio-organic ma… Oh ah ha ha hahahaaa!" Phelk took a few deep breaths, attempting to calm himself for a moment to speak. "It's a plant!" Phelk laughed in delight, before descending into another fit of laughter, this time the Doctor allowing himself a smile. "That's just… wow!" Phelk managed. "Some days you think you've got the universe pinned down, and then it comes up with something like that. This can't get much better."

"The dolls house is the seed." The Doctor told Phelk, who just looked between the doctor and the Dolls house in amazement, lost for words before having an intriguing thought.

"Someone's going to have to re-define the term 'house plant'."

"It's a plant that's adapted itself to become a house. More of a house shaped plant. You know there probably was a house that was built there and then this just grew up around it, eventually consuming and replacing the original. They say your looks are affecting by your surrounding when you're young but this house just takes it to a whole new level. So amazingly intelligent…"

"… and has the potential to become immensely useful – if bred is could easily solve housing problems on many of the overcrowded colony planets. But it'd need to be carefully looked after- as far as I'm away this may be the only one of its kind."

The stern looking head gardener of Kew frowned at the Doctor.

"Do you know how many prospective plants people bring in thinking that theirs is the only one of that type, and it isn't?" The Doctors was about to make a guess but she cut across him. "Far too many. But I've not come across this sort of thing before. You said it had occupants before- what happened to them?"

"Ah, it may need a bit more training for people to live in it permanently, but that shouldn't be too hard- it learns very quickly. But the fact remains that it is a rare plant and needs people living in it to support it- it was very ill when we got to it as no one had been living there for a while."

"Live in there?" She looked at the Dolls house sceptically.

"Oh, that's just the seed. With a bit of care it'll happily grow into a full sized house. You could even use it as a visitors centre- it takes green living to a whole new level!" The Doctor looked at her hopefully.

"It'd hardly make a suitable visitors centre, and I'm not convinced it's not just a joke: it is April after all."

"Rosanna, please, you hurt me!" The Doctor pleaded.

"I know you- there's a distinct difference." She countered, heading back behind her desk.

"Fine. Is there a large spare area of ground near her? A park or a field maybe?" The Doctor asked casually.

"Yes there's the mile lawn just across the pathway, why?" She replied, looking at the Doctor from around the folder she'd just picked up, but he ignored her, standing beside the Dolls house and talking to Phelk instead.

"Would you give me a hand?" They picked up the Dolls house between them, heading out the door.

"What are you doing?" Rosanna asked, following them as they carried the Dolls house outside. "Wait, where are you taking that?" She followed them into the middle of the mile lawn, where they put it down. "You can't put that there!" exclaimed as the Doctor stood back and pulled out the sonic, pointed it at the house and set it buzzing. Rosanna stood and gaped as the house grew up around them, leaving the three of them stood in the hallway of the gleaming new house. "Oh my…" The Doctor stood back as she took time to look around. "It's just like that dolls house!" She exclaimed when they were outside once again.

"I told you it's a plant. If you had looked upstairs you'd have found a nursery containing another Dolls house- the next seed. This is the only one of its kind but you can nurture it, help it grow and reproduce."

"It could make so many houses…" She pondered. "Well Doctor, I'll agree to looking after it here, not that you've given me much choice: I don't think it'd fit in even your ship now, but it'll be an interesting project, particularly if it turns out to be as smart as you seem to think it is."

"Thank you Rosanna, it's good to know it'll be looked after." The Doctor glanced over to where Phelk was stood, gazing down the hill at the view, and drew Rosanna to one side. "Actually there's one more favour you could do for me…" They conferred and after a few nod Rosanna broke off and headed over to Phelk.

"Phelk?" She asked carefully, getting a 'hmm?' in reply. "The Doctor told me about what happened at your home planet and explained your situation- I'm sorry to hear it. If you want to stay here, I'm more than happy to sort you a job, and you can live here, in the house." The Doctor rolled up.

"What do you think Phelk?" He asked. "Do you want to live here, look after the house for me? It'd be your own home."

Phelk stood for a moment, taking a long hard look at the area around him, and then the house, thinking back over the day's events before making his decision.

"Nah, I'm good."


End file.
